We are at 3-3 after six games, of the three loses We could and frankly should have won one of those three, they were all tight and winnable games.

@ Broncos : 27-24@ Bears: 24-17Rams: 33-31

There should be no doubt that our team is improving offense wise: running game is potent with three backs. OL is functional and not a liability anymore, WR was the weak link but with Doug back and Moore we might just have enough. Defense wise, even without ET3, we are still ok, with Tre and Tedric gaining experience, I foresee good things happening.

What it basically comes down to is the national media’s disdain for Pete Carroll and their under-appreciation for Russell Wilson. Especially those, some fans included who give the defense and Lynch 1000% of the credit for our SB success. It was more so them hoping we’d fail than anything else.

It's possible to underrate a team without "hating" them. There are a few teams I thought would be much worse than they've been, and it's not because I hate them.

4-12 was obviously too low. Anyone predicting 12-4 will likely be way off too. I don't think we'll be challenging for home-field advantage, but should be a factor in the wild-card race late into the season. Pretty good considering the offseason losses and Earl going down for the year.

Rat wrote:It's possible to underrate a team without "hating" them. There are a few teams I thought would be much worse than they've been, and it's not because I hate them.

4-12 was obviously too low. Anyone predicting 12-4 will likely be way off too. I don't think we'll be challenging for home-field advantage, but should be a factor in the wild-card race late into the season. Pretty good considering the offseason losses and Earl going down for the year.

I felt like Earl going down would be key to Hawk's long term success. On .net, folks started talking about football after Earl injury, before that, the whole forum was all about Earl and his shit. Now imagine what was it like in the locker room?

Jerhawk wrote:This is a .500 football team. Pre season articles with ridiculous predictions are simply click bait to generate revenue for their publication, nothing more.

They have been a .500 team to date....but the team that is playing the last few weeks is playing a better brand of football than what we saw in the first 3-4 weeks of the year.

They may end up 8-8. But I tend to think that may be their floor now rather than their ceiling. If they can somehow best both Minnesota and KC at home (a tall task no doubt) they have a real shot at 10-6 and a wild card berth.

Jerhawk wrote:This is a .500 football team. Pre season articles with ridiculous predictions are simply click bait to generate revenue for their publication, nothing more.

They have been a .500 team to date....but the team that is playing the last few weeks is playing a better brand of football than what we saw in the first 3-4 weeks of the year.

They may end up 8-8. But I tend to think that may be their floor now rather than their ceiling. If they can somehow best both Minnesota and KC at home (a tall task no doubt) they have a real shot at 10-6 and a wild card berth.

Never underestimate a young amd motivated team. Earl's injury could be that God send to lift the team to another level. Look, team is playing better, you sure won't know it from looking at Earl:

Rat wrote:It's possible to underrate a team without "hating" them. There are a few teams I thought would be much worse than they've been, and it's not because I hate them.

4-12 was obviously too low. Anyone predicting 12-4 will likely be way off too. I don't think we'll be challenging for home-field advantage, but should be a factor in the wild-card race late into the season. Pretty good considering the offseason losses and Earl going down for the year.

I disagree. There is a lot of anti-Pete stuff out there, particularly journalists who feel his coaching style doesn’t work and wants to prove that at all costs. Tends to be the media who had an issue with Sherman’s mouth and Lynch’s antics, and Pete’s willingness to let them be themselves

Also, a lot of journalists don’t think Russell is a true QB capable of carrying a team. Even after last year. They’re the type of idiots that would say they’d rather have Stafford or Carr as their QB

Jerhawk wrote:This is a .500 football team. Pre season articles with ridiculous predictions are simply click bait to generate revenue for their publication, nothing more.

They have been a .500 team to date....but the team that is playing the last few weeks is playing a better brand of football than what we saw in the first 3-4 weeks of the year.

They may end up 8-8. But I tend to think that may be their floor now rather than their ceiling. If they can somehow best both Minnesota and KC at home (a tall task no doubt) they have a real shot at 10-6 and a wild card berth.

Never underestimate a young amd motivated team. Earl's injury could be that God send to lift the team to another level. Look, team is playing better, you sure won't know it from looking at Earl:

Difference between feeding hungry children and making a shrewd business move against NFL owners. No one talks about their greed, just the players who are just supposed to smile, be happy with what they get, and not try to make as much as possible

Rat wrote:It's possible to underrate a team without "hating" them. There are a few teams I thought would be much worse than they've been, and it's not because I hate them.

4-12 was obviously too low. Anyone predicting 12-4 will likely be way off too. I don't think we'll be challenging for home-field advantage, but should be a factor in the wild-card race late into the season. Pretty good considering the offseason losses and Earl going down for the year.

Never understood why so many fans side with the owners over the players in terms of contracts. The players are getting ripped off so bad by the owners it’s comical. Odell Beckham Jr makes less than a large portion of relief pitchers in the MLB lmao

Rat wrote:It's possible to underrate a team without "hating" them. There are a few teams I thought would be much worse than they've been, and it's not because I hate them.

4-12 was obviously too low. Anyone predicting 12-4 will likely be way off too. I don't think we'll be challenging for home-field advantage, but should be a factor in the wild-card race late into the season. Pretty good considering the offseason losses and Earl going down for the year.

Steve2222 wrote:Never understood why so many fans side with the owners over the players in terms of contracts. The players are getting ripped off so bad by the owners it’s comical. Odell Beckham Jr makes less than a large portion of relief pitchers in the MLB lmao

Need to do better, like we did against the Rams. Was it just me or did Russ almost fumble the snap and then airmail the ball successfully? In most cases, Russ would be stopped before the pass. OAK was a gimme that the rest of the schedule won't provide.

Jerhawk wrote:This is a .500 football team. Pre season articles with ridiculous predictions are simply click bait to generate revenue for their publication, nothing more.

They have been a .500 team to date....but the team that is playing the last few weeks is playing a better brand of football than what we saw in the first 3-4 weeks of the year.

They may end up 8-8. But I tend to think that may be their floor now rather than their ceiling. If they can somehow best both Minnesota and KC at home (a tall task no doubt) they have a real shot at 10-6 and a wild card berth.

Never underestimate a young amd motivated team. Earl's injury could be that God send to lift the team to another level. Look, team is playing better, you sure won't know it from looking at Earl:

Steve2222 wrote:Never understood why so many fans side with the owners over the players in terms of contracts. The players are getting ripped off so bad by the owners it’s comical. Odell Beckham Jr makes less than a large portion of relief pitchers in the MLB lmao

Because most of us abide by the work contracts we sign and don’t try to take advantage of our employers. We accept our pay and are grateful we have a job and can keep a roof over our heads and feed our families.

And overpaying athletes hurts the team with a salary cap. Fans support team success, not player success.

Steve2222 wrote:Never understood why so many fans side with the owners over the players in terms of contracts. The players are getting ripped off so bad by the owners it’s comical. Odell Beckham Jr makes less than a large portion of relief pitchers in the MLB lmao

Because most of us abide by the work contracts we sign and don’t try to take advantage of our employers. We accept our pay and are grateful we have a job and can keep a roof over our heads and feed our families.

And overpaying athletes hurts the team with a salary cap. Fans support team success, not player success.

May be Steve2222 should try to demand more salary with his boss and see what happens? Oh middle finger the boss and all co-worker while he is at it? haha make sure someone video it.

Steve2222 wrote:Never understood why so many fans side with the owners over the players in terms of contracts. The players are getting ripped off so bad by the owners it’s comical. Odell Beckham Jr makes less than a large portion of relief pitchers in the MLB lmao

Because most of us abide by the work contracts we sign and don’t try to take advantage of our employers. We accept our pay and are grateful we have a job and can keep a roof over our heads and feed our families.

And overpaying athletes hurts the team with a salary cap. Fans support team success, not player success.

May be Steve2222 should try to demand more salary with his boss and see what happens? Oh middle finger the boss and all co-worker while he is at it? haha make sure someone video it.

It's almost like athletes, actors, and other celebrities work in different fields than the average person and that those jobs have different rules and expectations.

Steve2222 wrote:Never understood why so many fans side with the owners over the players in terms of contracts. The players are getting ripped off so bad by the owners it’s comical. Odell Beckham Jr makes less than a large portion of relief pitchers in the MLB lmao

Because most of us abide by the work contracts we sign and don’t try to take advantage of our employers. We accept our pay and are grateful we have a job and can keep a roof over our heads and feed our families.

And overpaying athletes hurts the team with a salary cap. Fans support team success, not player success.

May be Steve2222 should try to demand more salary with his boss and see what happens? Oh middle finger the boss and all co-worker while he is at it? haha make sure someone video it.

Dude, this is totally, like the POST OF THE WEEK!!I'm just imagining how it would go over if I went to my boss and demanded more money and when I didn't immediately get it, flipped off him and the rest of my work team. (HInt: It wouldn't go over well)Oh, and also, last year, I went fawning to a potential boss of another organization in my industry, telling them to "come get me!"

When we translate Earl's behavior into regular working stiff terms, it sure comes across as entitled and detached from the reality the rest of us working stiffs deal with.

Steve2222 wrote:Never understood why so many fans side with the owners over the players in terms of contracts. The players are getting ripped off so bad by the owners it’s comical. Odell Beckham Jr makes less than a large portion of relief pitchers in the MLB lmao

Because most of us abide by the work contracts we sign and don’t try to take advantage of our employers. We accept our pay and are grateful we have a job and can keep a roof over our heads and feed our families.

And overpaying athletes hurts the team with a salary cap. Fans support team success, not player success.

May be Steve2222 should try to demand more salary with his boss and see what happens? Oh middle finger the boss and all co-worker while he is at it? haha make sure someone video it.

Dude, this is totally, like the POST OF THE WEEK!!I'm just imagining how it would go over if I went to my boss and demanded more money and when I didn't immediately get it, flipped off him and the rest of my work team. (HInt: It wouldn't go over well)Oh, and also, last year, I went fawning to a potential boss of another organization in my industry, telling them to "come get me!"

When we translate Earl's behavior into regular working stiff terms, it sure comes across as entitled and detached from the reality the rest of us working stiffs deal with.

Unless people pay your boss to come watch you work it's not really the same.

Because most of us abide by the work contracts we sign and don’t try to take advantage of our employers. We accept our pay and are grateful we have a job and can keep a roof over our heads and feed our families.

And overpaying athletes hurts the team with a salary cap. Fans support team success, not player success.

May be Steve2222 should try to demand more salary with his boss and see what happens? Oh middle finger the boss and all co-worker while he is at it? haha make sure someone video it.

Dude, this is totally, like the POST OF THE WEEK!!I'm just imagining how it would go over if I went to my boss and demanded more money and when I didn't immediately get it, flipped off him and the rest of my work team. (HInt: It wouldn't go over well)Oh, and also, last year, I went fawning to a potential boss of another organization in my industry, telling them to "come get me!"

When we translate Earl's behavior into regular working stiff terms, it sure comes across as entitled and detached from the reality the rest of us working stiffs deal with.

Unless people pay your boss to come watch you work it's not really the same.

Every business in the world has clients that pay for your work. Not watch you work, but pay for your work. As we fans (clients) pay for Earl's work

The eye test is telling me this is a better team than the one that went 9-7 last year. Of course, that team opened 5-2 and lost very winnable games against Atlanta and Washington, before injuries derailed much of the season.By that same token, if we could have scored 4 points more in each of our losses we'd have finished 12-4.

This year we're scoring 0.9PPG more than last year and conceding 1.3 less (so 2.2 PPG differential). That's having played 4 road games to 2 home games.

There's not a single game left on the schedule that I don't think we can win. Certainly the Chiefs and Rams games look tough, but as last week showed, we can definitely get in about the Rams, and the Chiefs defense is terrible. Over the last 4 games we've rushed for 629 yards - more than 16 teams have managed since the start of the season, and at 157 YPG would rank first if continued over the course of the season.

Winning the division is probably out of reach, but not certainly. The Rams have a tough stretch coming up which includes the Packers, Saints, Chiefs and Seahawks. If we win our next 4 (big if) and the Rams drop 1 other, then we can start to put pressure on them and who knows how things will go.It's definitely unlikely that we win the division, but 11-5 I see as a definite possibility.

AlciG wrote:Unless people pay your boss to come watch you work it's not really the same.

Every business in the world has clients that pay for your work. Not watch you work, but pay for your work. As we fans (clients) pay for Earl's work

In my work, I am essentially a resource that gets contracted out to different business areas. And while they do watch me work, and pay for it, they also expect (and get) tangible and lasting deliverables that serve their business needs. I don't set out to "entertain" them as such but there is nearly always some drama in the process.

Earl's world of work as an "entertainer" is not as far detached from the working-stiff reality as AlciG (not Smellyman) is suggesting. "The SAME"? No, but that's not a real question, and there are *plenty* of PARALLELs between Earl's world and the working-stiff world of (many of) us. If I got food poisoning during a team presentation to a client organization, barfed and collapsed and had to be carted out, and flipped off my boss and team while being carted out, it would not be well received by my boss and team, and would leave the client organization much less confident in the whole situation, wondering about this unhinged sick person flipping off his boss, and just how dysfunctional my company is, and why they should have any degree of confidence or trust in the entire situation.

Earl in fact tries to present himself in the media as simply a working man trying to provide for his family.

It's just really nice lately having the conversation be about the TEAM and not about Earl's dysfunction.

Last edited by olyfan63 on Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

AlciG wrote:Unless people pay your boss to come watch you work it's not really the same.

Every business in the world has clients that pay for your work. Not watch you work, but pay for your work. As we fans (clients) pay for Earl's work

In my work, I am essentially a resource that gets contracted out to different business areas. And while they do watch me work, and pay for it, they also expect (and get) tangible and lasting deliverables that serve their business needs. I don't set out to "entertain" them as such but there is nearly always some drama in the process.

Earl's world of work as an "entertainer" is not as far detached from the working-stiff reality as Smellyman is suggesting. "The SAME"? No, but that's not a real question, and there are *plenty* of PARALLELs between Earl's world and the working-stiff world of (many of) us. If I got food poisoning during a team presentation to a client organization, barfed and collapsed and had to be carted out, and flipped off my boss and team while being carted out, it would not be well received by my boss and team, and would leave the client organization much less confident in the whole situation, wondering about this unhinged sick person flipping off his boss, and just how dysfunctional my company is, and why they should have any degree of confidence or trust in the entire situation.

Earl in fact tries to present himself in the media as simply a working man trying to provide for his family.

It's just really nice lately having the conversation be about the TEAM and not about Earl's dysfunction.

Exactly. And whatever industry you work in if one of the best workers is hard to work with and team morale is down because of him/her, it will have repercussions up and down the team. No matter how good one person is they can't be above the team/company goal.

Edited my original post to correctly attribute "really not the same" properly, to AlciG, not Smellyman. (Thank you for your patience, o pungent one)

Clearly, a Hawk fan named Smellyman would not be the one to talk about people *watching* him work; obviously people would be around Smellyman for the olfactory experience, and could even be blindfolded. Or maybe Smellyman is one of the guys that throw and catch salmon at Pike Place Market, so people pay to watch him AND get the olfactory experience as well as part of the deal. I could certainly see Smellyman flipping off a team member for a bad salmon toss as he is wheeled out, concussed from a 60mph* salmon to the head. THAT would be understandable.

OK, upon further review, Smellyman lists his location as Taipei, so he's clearly not a Pike Place fish tosser. I'm sure there are plenty of powerfully aromatic experiences in Taiwan to account for his board name.

*Meanwhile, the Seahawks and Mariners are fighting it out for contract rights to the dude who can toss a damn salmon freakin 60mph.

toffee wrote:May be Steve2222 should try to demand more salary with his boss and see what happens? Oh middle finger the boss and all co-worker while he is at it? haha make sure someone video it.

Dude, this is totally, like the POST OF THE WEEK!!I'm just imagining how it would go over if I went to my boss and demanded more money and when I didn't immediately get it, flipped off him and the rest of my work team. (HInt: It wouldn't go over well)Oh, and also, last year, I went fawning to a potential boss of another organization in my industry, telling them to "come get me!"

When we translate Earl's behavior into regular working stiff terms, it sure comes across as entitled and detached from the reality the rest of us working stiffs deal with.

Unless people pay your boss to come watch you work it's not really the same.

Every business in the world has clients that pay for your work. Not watch you work, but pay for your work. As we fans (clients) pay for Earl's work

Respectfully, these points are beyond silly and illogical. Makes no sense whatsoever.

First off, MOST of you aren't risking brain injury, or your bodies for entertainment. Comparing an NFL player to an average Joe at work is laughable and envious. There's so much bitterness by some in our society that athletes and entertainers make millions compared to the average Joe, and it's pitiful. That's never been the way business and entertainment works.

Second, most workers in America are cogs in the machine. The stars in ANY work place? They can make demands, they can walk in the office and demand a raise. And some employers are actually afraid to lose a worker like that.

All athletes are not built the same. If they were, then Lebron James or Steph Curry wouldn't add immense value to a franchise. Having elite athletes mean more revenue for the owners, it means more ticket sales, it means more media attention and credibility. Ask the Chicago Bears what business looked like during the Jay Cutler era, then ask them what it's like now during the Khalil Mack era. Major difference. Stop with the envy, and the bitterness, and simply accept that athletes are a major part of the NFL business. Otherwise you become a bottom dwelling team for decades. I hated the way Earl handled things, but he has a RIGHT to want to build on his success. Building generational wealth for his family for decades to come. Being able to give his family the highest quality of life for generations, all because of the work they put in. Athletes work hard to get where they are and they've EARNED their big contracts. Without great players and coaches the value of a franchise goes down. If we're gonna discuss this let's at least have a logical conversation